Wow. Your message came as a separate base64 encoded attachment. Whatever you did when you sent it please try to do something different next time. Gustavo J Mata wrote: > I recently installed Debian on a new hard disk. Although I rarely used > Windows I kept a 20 Gb partition to install it, just in case. Usually installing Windows is better if that part is done first. Windows doesn't play as well with other systems. Better if Windows is installed when there isn't any other system for it to know about. Then later install Debian and let Debian work around Windows. It isn't required to be done in this order but everything flows better if it is done in that order. > I've found out that if I do install Windows, I won't be able to boot > Debian. Windows will replace the MBR (main boot record) with its own MBR and at that point it will only be able to boot Windows. > Although it appears that this can be fixed, Yes. Very easily. Simply replace the Windows MBR with one that can boot both such as with Grub. > I want to make sure I know what I'm doing before risking having to > start all over again. > > Any hints? AS a hint, normally I always recommend two difference disks. One for Windows and one for Debian. Then there isn't any conflict between them. But of course that isn't necessary. Just convenient. :-) I assume that you installed using a Debian install cdrom or usb boot image? If so then keep that available because it also makes a very useful rescue system. After installing Windows and having Windows wipe out your existing grub MBR it is easy to boot the Debian installer and use rescue mode to get to a root shell on your Debian system. Then reinstall grub onto the system. Which release of Debian did you install? (cat /etc/debian_version) What architecture? (uname -m) What bootloader? (dpkg -l 'grub*') The recent changes from grub (now called grub-legacy) to grub 2 (called grub-pc) means there will be differences in grub install commands. (Assuming that you are using grub not lilo or other of course.) The 'grub-install' script should hide most of those differences. man grub-install With the older grub I never used the script and always ran the grub commands interactively. With the new grub everything is different now, the interactive mode isn't available anymore, and I haven't experience with the new script so will avoid suggesting a usage. Bob
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